Ash
by Feral Smile
Summary: "Something happened. Is going to happen. Something bad. I have to stop it, but I don't know how. No, stop, you don't understand, everything is going to burn and I DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT!" In this story, Naruto learns what it means to be helpless. He wakes, as Madara dies, to a strange world. One wherein the people he loves still live.
1. Ashes

Ash. My whole world was ash. It choked the air, swirling everywhere and touching everything. It piled on the ground in mounds and drifts. It stuck to my clothes, dulling the colors, and to the blood once wet upon my body, turning it black. My feet left prints in the ash upon the ground. When I imagined what the end of the world might be like, I thought of flames leaping at the sky, buildings falling, and rivers running red with blood.

Flames had leapt. Buildings had fallen. The rivers had turned crimson. But that was all long ago. Everything that could burn had burned. Those houses that were to fall have already fallen. And all who could bleed have been bled. Now there are only the broken bones of a civilization reaching for the sky, jagged and blackened by flame and ash. Now there is only me.

I dropped Earthbreaker, the heavy iron hammer throwing ash into the air when it struck the ground. Unheedful, I continued walking, black and grey flakes sticking to my brows and eyelashes. Ash was all I saw, and all I could smell. I could even taste it. I spat on the ground, or tried. Spitting is somewhat more difficult when one hasn't had a drink in what felt like years. I stopped.

To my right, some shattered structure that could have been either a church or a grocery store for all it mattered loomed out of the swirling blackness. On my left, there was an inn of some repute, though now somewhat less inviting with half of the front collapsed and the roof torn off. The likelihood of finding something to drink in such a broken building was as remote as the sun finding a break in the ash and shining through to kiss my skin. More likely, I would find nothing but ash. Every other time I had wanted something, it had either slipped through my fingers or died in my arms, so why should this be any different?

I turned left. The door, although beaten and weathered, opened with only a slight protest. Just inside, one of the large crossbeams that helped carry the weight of the roof blocked the entrance. I reached out and broke it in my hands, the movement causing ash to plume around me. I stepped inside and looked around. There were six broken tables, and various remnants of the chairs to go with them were strewn about the large room. I went to the bar, and leaned over the counter. The remaining bit of roof and some clever bit of air current had, by freak chance, caused most of the ash flying about to avoid this bit of the room. Some small piece of luck that was, but I was glad for the relief all the same.

Below me I saw broken bottles and shattered glass. Whatever they had held had dried up a long time ago. Against my better judgment, I leaned farther over to peer under the counter, hoping against hope that there was _something_ for me to drink. I don't think it mattered all that much. If I were capable of dying from dehydration, doubtless it would have happened already. I blinked in surprise at the sight of a dusty bottle. It was comfortingly heavy in my hands, and I marveled at this small kindness. I dusted the ash off, sitting in the only remaining barstool.

_Umeshu._ It was a type of sweet alcoholic drink. I broke the top of the bottle off, and tasted it. I understood immediately why I had been allowed to find it. I choked on the sweet drink, but swallowed. Tears clouded my vision and my chest began to heave quite on its own accord. I felt a sudden powerful urge to blow my nose. Finding this bottle was no kind thing. Plum wine had been _her_ favorite drink. She _hated_ alcohol, but always had a soft spot for umeshu. It wasn't so much that it was plum wine. It was _this _plum wine. Only one place in the entire Elemental Nations produced it. It tasted of plums, cream, and honey. It tasted like home.

I began to cry.

**Chapter One will be up in a couple hours at most.**

FS


	2. Cold Sweat

**I lied.**

* * *

Naruto woke with a start, a thin sheen of sweat on his body. He sat upright in bed, white sheets falling gently onto his lap. He took a couple deep breaths, enjoying the cool air on his somewhat damp skin. Three days now he'd been having this dream. It wasn't the same every night, but it was very similar: he walked around, alone. He had a hammer, which was both heavy and not heavy, called Earthbreaker. He never used this hammer, just carried it. And at the end of the dream, he'd settle down to sleep, and immediately wake up.

"Mmm…another bad dream?" Sakura asked him, voice leaden with sleep.

"Yeah…" Naruto looked down at his hands. Could it mean something? Or was he just overthinking things again? He did that a lot.

"You're overthinking it." Sakura swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, tottering for a moment as she caught her balance. "I call the bathroom first."

She was like that. Waking up easily, that is. She'd be barely conscious one instant, and ready to start the day in the next. It was just another odd quirk of hers, like how she would always leave one bite on the plate when she was finished, or how on walks she'd pick up stones, discarding them one by one as she found another she liked best, until she had a favorite stone at the end. She kept all these stones in a box under her bed, and she could recall exactly what they were doing and what they were talking about just by the stone.

Naruto stood, and gathered up the blankets in his hands before tossing them on the floor at the foot of the bed. He deposited the pillows there as well, before reaching over the large bed and unfastening the sheets. Sakura's side was perfectly clean, but his side was soaked in sweat, both from last night and the nights before. They were due for a clean anyway. He gathered all the linen together and side-stepped through the bedroom doorway into the hall. Naruto leaned the pile of sheets and blankets against the wall as he turned the knob to the laundry room, then entered and placed the lot of it into the washer.

Once the gentle hum of the washing machine started, he left and went to the kitchen, intent on making himself a nice bowl of cereal. Opening a cupboard and seeing no cereal, he decided instead upon oatmeal. Sakura loved oatmeal, after all. Taking the nearly-full container of oats from the cupboard, he sifted a healthy amount into a pan, and then crossed the room to the fridge to get an apple. He replaced the unused oats, and instead took out sugar and cinnamon. Naruto placed these to the side while he cut the apple into long thin pieces. Then he began to mince the pieces, so that they were small enough not to crunch. Sakura preferred dried apple, because she didn't like the crisp crunch.

He lit the stove and began to cook the oats with water and the apple bits as he mixed the cinnamon and sugar. Seeming pleased with the result, he put the mixture into the pan with the oats, and then hesitated. He drew one more spoonful of sugar from the bag, and stirred it into the thickening oats. Sakura _did_ like sweets, after all.

The sound of the shower cut off. Now, the only noise was the slight thump of the washing machine and the bubbling of the oatmeal on the stove. Naruto shut that off, stirring one last time before letting it sit and thicken.

He looked up as Sakura emerged from the bathroom, damp hair hanging down around her neck, complementing the white towel covering her body. She smiled when she saw the oatmeal, and happily accepted a bowl from Naruto.

"Thanks."

"Sure." Naruto blew on his oatmeal, watching his girlfriend do the same. "Learned your lesson, I see."

"Hm?" She looked up at him curiously.

"Blowing on your food."

Sakura tilted her head to one side and quirked her eyebrow. "What?"

"You _always_ burn yourself on your oatmeal."

"I do not!"

"You do too!"

"I don't even _eat_ oatmeal very much!"

Naruto blinked. That was true. Oatmeal wasn't usually fare in this household. Apartment. That's why the container was so full.

"Why not?"

"Eh," She said, looking up and putting the back of her spoon to her chin. "I guess I just don't really like it."

"Huh?" Naruto blinked again. "You _love_ oatmeal."

"No I don't…"

"That's odd…" He stared down at his own oatmeal. "I could have sworn…"

"Don't worry about it." Sakura stood, stepped around the table, and kissed him sweetly on the forehead. "You're just stressed from the inauguration."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Speaking of which, you should probably get ready, _Rokudaime_."

This time Naruto was the one who pulled a face. "It should be Kakashi. I couldn't have done any of it without him teaching me, mentoring me, and advising me."

"Kakashi-sensei _was_ interim Hokage…you know he wouldn't stay there…not with all that paperwork!"

"Haha…" Naruto scratched his ear in irritation. Something about the way she said Kakashi's name bugged him. "I guess so."

He exhaled mightily and stood up.

"You're right," he said decisively, "It's time for me to shower and get ready to become the Hokage!"

"Hurry up, we're supposed to be in place in thirty minutes."

"Stop nagging, woman."

Laughing, she swatted at him as he danced around the corner, into the hallway.

Two hours later, they were sitting in uncomfortable chairs in the early-morning sunlight, waiting.

"Oh for the love of-"

"Naruto!" Sakura shushed him. "They have to make sure they get everything right! What if someone messes up and ruins your inauguration?!"

"Big deal!" Naruto stood, shaking out his limbs. "I'm tired of waiting, let's do it now."

"No, Naruto, we still have another hour!"

"But everyone is already _here._" He gestured towards the crowd milling around the base of the Hokage tower. "We're only waiting on Baa-chan and Kakai-sensei."

"They're here, Naruto, they're just next door, probably making sure Kakashi-sensei doesn't mess up his speech."

Naruto twitched in annoyance. "Why do you keep doing that?"

"What?"

"Saying his name like that."

"Whose?"

"Kakai-sensei."

The door adjacent to their room opened, and the man in question stepped through. "Mm?"

"Oh good, we can start."

"I'm telling you, we're not supposed to start for another hour, Naruto!"

"No, we're doing it now." He took a breath. _**"Baa-chan! Let's go we're doing it now."**_

A thump and a shuffle sounded behind Kakashi, and then he was jostled out of the way by an irate blonde woman.

"Don't you yell at me, you jumped-up little-"

"Great, you're ready!" Naruto stepped forward, reaching past Tsunade to touch Kakashi with his fingertips, while simultaneously dragging Sakura's hand into his side. With his elbow brushing Tsunade's arm, an intense light flashed around them.

The sounds of a bored crowd and birds questing for a late breakfast assaulted their ears.

"Naruto!" The Godaime raised a finger at him. "The _Hiraishin_ is not to be used _lightly_."

"Oh loosen up." He turned towards the crowd. "Hey everyone! You ready to get started?!"

They roared their approval while Sakura growled at him and Tsunade sighed. His teacher just shrugged.

"Fine!" Tsunade cleared her throat. "Honorable village of Konoha! In these dark times past, we have endured many challenges. We repelled a rampaging Bijuu! We fought for our very lives against a tyrannical terrorist cell, and mobilized our armies to keep our human right to free will!"

The crowd went crazy cheering, to include several ninjas who should have been old enough to know better.

"Every time, one light has shone through the darkness, showing us the way forward, forging a path to peace. That light is my successor, UZUMAKI NARUTO!"

The blond ninja struck a ridiculous pose, thumb held proudly in the air. They began to chant his name over and over again. He grinned down at them for a moment, and then raised his hand for silence. After several moments, he got it.

"I'M THE ROKUDAIME NOW!"

The sound the crowd was making was deafening.

"Alright! Hush! I'm trying to talk here!" They quieted down again. "As my first order as Rokudaime, you will all party with me, tonight, at the fairgrounds!"

They continued to cheer, as he turned and grabbed Sakura. They stopped cheering as loudly for a moment, as it looked like he was going to speak again.

"Baa-chan, I'll take my hat now!"

Shaking her head, Tsunade passed him the Hokage hat.

Naruto placed it on his head and grinned widely. "Now, if you'll all excuse me, Sakura is just _dying _to get with a Kag-"

He doubled over as she hit him, raucous laughter washing over all of them. She raised her fist to hit him again, but he stood up right into her guard and kissed her on the lips, light dancing around both of them as he did so. They vanished in a brilliant flash of yellow-white.

* * *

"Being Hokage SUCKS!"

"Naruto, it's your _second day_!"

"But Kakai-sensei, there's so much _work!_"

"Of course…you're responsible for everyone now."

"But it's so boring…"

"Life's like that."

"Boooooooooorrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeed!"

The door banged open. "Hokage-sama!"

"Shizune! Thank the Shinigami you're here. Please tell me something interesting is happening!"

"Y-yes!" She straightened up. "Delegates from Iwa are here. They want to meet with you. I know they're unannounced but-"

"Because they know who my father is now." Naruto nodded. "I suppose even saving the world isn't enough to clean my hands of his deeds."

There was a pregnant pause.

"Naruto…" Kakashi sat up from his position lounging on the windowsill. "Why would you say that about your father?"

"I…" Naruto blinked. "I'm not sure…it just came out…"

"Well, don't say something like that in front of the delegates from Iwa."

"I know that." Naruto looked at Shizune again. "Please, send them in whenever they're ready."

After what seemed like to Naruto to be an annoyingly long period of time, the delegates arrived. Two stepped into the room immediately, but by the way they were standing he couldn't quite make out the third. The figure was shorter by the other two, and considerably less…muscular.

"Honorable Rokudaime," One figure began, "first let me congratulate you on becoming Hokage. It is truly a feat of immense proportions, and none deserved it as much as you."

The figure behind them made some sort of amused, dismissive noise. It was odd.

"However, and I beg you forgive me for being blunt," The second figure continued, "Our villages have had somewhat of a rocky past."

"You mean with my father killing hundreds if not thousands of your ninja, and Iwa leveling farms, fields, and any civilians enough silly to want to live in Fire Country."

"Ah," The first figure said, taken aback, "perhaps we should discuss this over tea, or-"

"Get out of the way." The figure in the back shoved roughly between them. She had short, black hair, and eyes the color of Sakura's hair. She wore dark brown over deep red, and a proudly-displayed headband marked her as a ninja. "I'm the Tsuchikage's daughter. He wants us to marry so you don't attack us, forcing us to beat Konoha down."

The two other figures looked at her in horror.

"K-Kurotsuchi-sama!"

The Rokudaime Hokage stood, rage clear on his face. "How **dare-**

* * *

I awoke, choking on ash.


End file.
